Catching Up

Things have been super slow here on the blog, but not in daily life. Things are moving on all three related fronts: (1) Home (2) Brewed (3)Bikes - so here's a bunch of text. I'll post more pictures next time, I promise.

(1) Our wedding is fast approaching... and so is our move to Dallas, TX. We've been planning and purging, and I've been job searching. Home life has been really busy - traveling to my sister's wedding, Rachel's wedding shower, an impromptu Cinco de Mayo party...  what a month.

(2) Time is ticking on the wedding beer clock, so last Sunday I biked over to Matt's house and brewed my first all-grain batch of beer - a 5g clone of a New Belgium Saison Farmhouse Ale. He showed me the ropes for his process, including creating a liquid yeast starter, sanitation, mashing and sparging. I have to say, he knows his stuff. The beer smelled delicious going into the fermenter. The recipe added cracked corriander, cardamom, and orange peel. (Matt says the Belgians cheat... they deviate from the 4 standard ingredients. He's a big German beer fan.) Assuming the yeast stays happy, it should turn out to be an excellent summer-wedding beer!

I learned so much in 6 hours, and brewing with a more experienced friend has really helped me along. I could read internet forums all day on the subject, but the actual process imparts a more useful framework of practical knowledge.

Next weekend, we're brewing a 10g batch of another New Belgium clone, this one a bit more famous, and bike related! FAT TIRE. Matt recently finished building his 10g Keggle setup, and it will be put to a good second use.

(3) I've been riding to work about 90% of the time, though lately I'm starting to feel a physical need for a different workout and better recovery. Mashing pedals for an hour a day certainly gets me time on the bike, but I haven't been on a real ride since January out at Walnut Creek. It's time for a nice leisurely 45 mile road ride. I just want to spin.

All of my tinkering bike projects are on pause for now. Too much ambition, not enough time. I've decided that down in Dallas I will turn the Rockfish into a lightweight coffee-cup commuter. I'm planning on building and leaving the trailer here. And any dreams of a tandem will have to wait until after home life has settled.

Scavenger Hunt Over

Finished my part of the www.reddit.com/r/bicycling scavenger hunt... waiting to see if we get some last minute submissions. From others. Below are my most picturesque finds.

Mariokart in the bike lane:

A tallbike I made in 2006 subsequently gave away. I found it in the wild.

And an unusual animal... half of a dead groundhog.

See the rest here.

3 Speed Rescue

After providing some parts for the Sachs Torpedo hub, Thomas invited me to show my recent build of a German 3-speed.



Here she is as rescued from Craigslist. Rusty but straight and mostly complete.



Original rack and mounting plate. Mounting plate stamped with (my paraphrase of the German) "Made in Germany under license to Pletcher." Chrome on the rack was pretty bad.

Nice, virtually indestructible Sachs Torpedo 415. Made from the early sixties to the mid seventies.

Missing indicator chain, shift cable and trigger. Hmmmm.

Nice block pedals. Cottered cranks and chainring were a little pitted, but salvageable.

Taiwanese front rim not original, but good enough.

Altenburger calipers front and rear - further confirmation of German lineage.

Rust and corrosion and grime, oh my!

Alloy brake levers to match the calipers.

Nice lugged steel frame. The decals were too far gone to read.

Nice welds on the seat stays. It's a quality machine.

Typical "North Road" style bars - not worth re-plating. Getting that stem out was the hardest part of the strip-down.

Open bottom bracket. Single leg kickstand was too short, probably a later addition.

All stripped down.

Ready for blasting and powder-coating.

Ta-da! Finished product after assembly.

Velo Orange "Left Bank" bars for a clean city-bike look. New Nitto 50mm stem.

Leather grips to go with the new Brooks B72 saddle. NOS period trigger shifter for the hub gears. Fresh white cables look great with the red powder coat.

Breaks cleaned up nice. I'll probably switch to Kool-stop salmon brake pads - I'm not happy with the performance of the black ones on the steel rims.

One of the clip-on cable guides was missing, so I used two new ones.

Cleaned up cranks and bottom bracket. Also, new Pletscher double-legged stand.

The Sachs gear-hub with chain and cable attached. Thanks again, Thomas!

Period Pletscher mousetrap rack from ebay. Bolted right on to the Pletscher mounting plate/brake bridge.



The chainguard was chromed, but too badly pitted. I went ahead and powder coated it to match the frame and forks. Looks pretty good, I think.

These tires are pretty good, but I think it needs whitewalls. May add fenders, too. All together a pretty satisfying rescue, and fun to ride.

Bicycle Scavenger Hunt!

I just started a week-long bicycle photo scavenger hunt on reddit.com!

Join me if you dare.
http://www.reddit.com/r/bicycling/comments/gr92e/bicycle_scavenger_hunt_starts_now/

-Thomas

Wedding Beer

If you haven't heard, I'm getting hitched in June. And for such a festive occasion, it's only proper for there to be copious amounts of beer on premise. I have a friend in town that can help me pull off three batches of homebrew, all New Belgium clones. Matt's great at brewing. He really knows his stuff. He'll be helping me brew my first all-grain batches with his equipment, introducing me to liquid yeast, and lending me kegging setups. It'll be nice not to bottle 15 gallons of beer. The recipes and ingredients will be from Austin Homebrew Supply. Check out the beers on Beer Advocate:

10 gallons of New Belgium's Fat Tire Amber Ale

5 gallons of New Belgium's Farmhouse Ale

Oh, and I had two bottles of our Belgian Tripel last night. At 9% ABV, I could have spaced them apart a wee bit more...

Sneak Peak of a Trailer Build

Started designing and building a trailer today out of aluminum scrap. Used to be patio furniture. It will be of the two wheel variety. Will have to stay behind when we move, so I'm not too serious about it. My goal is for it to be lightweight and almost free. So far so good.

All aluminum except for those two curved I bars in the middle.

Has quite a curve to it. Its center of gravy will be pretty low I hope.